There are a lot of taxi-cars in Beijing, at least in the central streets. A single movement of your hand and a red Citroen with a red-and-white hieroglyph on the windshield stops by you. The Pekinese taxi drivers can hardly speak English language. You can use this “widely spread” language at the expensive hotels (3* and on) and in the high quality restaurants. However this problem can be easily solved by means of purchasing a map of Beijing - it is enough to show the place on the map you want to get to and the driver will bring you there on the shortest path and fairly inexpensively.
The minimal fare is 10 Yuan (barely higher than 1 dollar) , average travel by taxi will cost you 2-4 dollars. The road traffic is unique – no rules, no order. The one, who was the first at the cross road, is the lucky. It is absolutely normal when a car in the fourth line start turning to the right crossing 3 other lines. Cross the road over the pedestrian crossing with the green light signal only after you make sure that nobody is going to run over you.
Well, you can also cross with the red light signal… that is the vehicles do not wait for you to cross but slightly apply the brake in order not to hit you but displaying their wish to move forward with the impatient horns. And the Chinese, those ones who are crossing the roads, in general submit such problem definition. That is they do not swear at the cars, do not hit them with feet and do not display their disappointment by any other means.
On the other hand the pedestrians seemingly do not completely agree with this problem statement as they continue crossing the street maneuvering among the cars, waiting for pauses between them etc. There are also a lot of cyclists disclaiming the cars’ priority. It is not advisable to rent a car because of these difficulties on the roads.
Busses move at different various routs, it is not that easy to understand in them. There are busses with fares of 1 Yuan, but they are really cram-full with people – dubious pleasure I should say. There are also busses with fares of 2-5 Yuan, depending on how far you are going to travel with it, the busses have only sitting capacities … though… if a lot of people want to go… you can also try to stand …
In general, I have not met any tourist with European appearance either in the busses or in the underground. It is still better to use taxi.
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